Free Republic

. Did the government really "lose" nearly 1,500 kids who illegally crossed the border into the United States without their parents? And are any of them in New Jersey? A Trump administration official made headlines last month when he testified before a Senate committee that his department was unsure of "the whereabouts of 1,475 unaccompanied alien children" apprehended at the border. The revelation sparked the #WhereAretheChildren movement on social media -- and a protest Wednesday night in Newark -- questioning whether the government is properly caring for kids who cross the U.S. border alone. Government officials fired back this week,...

<p>A sexual encounter between two middle school students in a school bathroom has prompted policy changes at the district and could even mean new construction of single-stall restrooms to accommodate transgender students.</p> <p>Gravenor held the open forum after local social media in Franklin Township in Gloucester County lit up over issues in the middle school.</p>

Gov. Phil Murphy's administration put New Jersey's state agencies on notice Friday that they should prepare for another state government shutdown if a state budget isn't signed by the June 30 deadline. The letter to Murphy's cabinet members, obtained by NJ Advance Media, asked them to update contingency plans for their departments. It was sent shortly after top staffers in the state Senate and Assembly met with Murphy's senior staff Friday morning amid ongoing negotiations about Murphy's first state budget proposal -- which so far have been fraught.

The Republican tax cuts signed by President Trump repealed the Obamacare individual mandate tax nationwide, but New Jersey residents will be stuck paying it due to the state’s Democrat legislature and governor. Governor Phil Murphy on Wednesday signed the new tax into law that will impose the tax on residents who choose not to purchase “qualifying” health insurance as defined by Obama-era regulations.

State police were shocked to find that after banning bump stocks and threatening violators with 5 years in prison, not a single resident has complied. The state of New Jersey has become the latest to ban bump-stocks for firearms, and despite strict threats to owners who refuse to turn their newly illegal devices over to police, not a single resident has complied with the new law. The legislation banning the popular A-15 accessory, Senate Bill 3477, went into effect immediately after it was signed into law by Gov. Chris Christie in January, and it gave residents 90 days to “voluntarily...

It’s not the news New Jersey drivers wanted to hear. This week we got word that gas tax collections have fallen behind expectations in the Garden State, which means the gas tax could be increased by 3 or 4 cents a gallon this fall. When lawmakers approved a plan to hike the gas tax almost 23 cents a gallon back in 2016 in order to fund the Transportation Trust Fund, the law was written in such a way to guarantee that a predictable level of revenue would be generated every year. If gasoline sales dip, according to the law, the...

What to Know The school bus driver in the deadly May 17 crash in NJ had 14 license suspensions on his record, the state said He also had multiple moving violations, including careless driving in 2009 and an improper turn in 2010 Authorities are still investigating the cause of the crash, which killed a student and a teacher The 77-year-old school bus driver from the deadly May 17 highway crash in New Jersey had a lengthy history of license suspensions and moving violations, a spokeswoman for the Motor Vehicle Commission told News 4.Investigators are still probing the cause of...

Brian Goldberg is hoping New Jersey Republicans appreciate his years of support to the GOP and choose him to be the nominee to run against corrupt Senator Robert Menendez in the June primary election.Goldberg submitted his petition to challenge GOP establishment candidate Bob Hugin.Brian hopes he can turn the tide of blue that has been sweeping across New Jersey in recent decades.  He said he can do it by bringing out new GOP voters who typically don’t vote during non-Presidential election cycles.  “If we want to have a voice for New Jersey that’s heard in Washington, we need to...

A lawsuit filed last week calls for the desegregation of New Jersey schools, a potentially game-changing legal challenge for minority students across the state. But how segregated are the state's schools? Just 0.3 percent of the more than 6,700 students in Irvington Public Schools are white, making it the most non-white school district in the state, according to data from the nonprofit Center on Diversity and Equality in Education And that's far from the only example of students of color being isolated. About 66 percent of New Jersey's African American students and 62 percent of its Latino students attend schools...

LOS ANGELES, California, May 18, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) -- California’s Democratic Attorney General Xavier Becerra is leading a coalition of 20 attorneys general, representing 19 states plus Washington, D.C., opposing a Trump administration rule change that prioritizes abstinence education over contraception distribution in family planning funds. In February, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that abstinence messages and natural family planning methods would be given priority in distributing $260 million worth of family planning grants. The announcement did not mention artificial birth control. In response, Planned Parenthood affiliates in Ohio, Utah, and Wisconsin, as well as the American...

. The principal of a New Jersey high school has apologized for what he called "insensitive" language on tickets for the upcoming senior prom. The Courier Post reported the Cherry Hill High School East senior prom tickets urged students to "party like it's 1776" during the event at Philadelphia's National Constitution Center.

Jewish-American historian Bernard Lewis, one of the most famous and influential Middle East scholars in the world who warned of a "clash of civilizations" between Islam and the West, died Saturday at the age of 101 in New Jersey. Lewis was a consultant to both Israeli leaders and two U.S. presidents. Generations of students, intelligence personnel and diplomats learned about the history of Islam through his writings. His research, which dealt with the history of the Middle East, brought him fame, but also many critics and enemies around the world. One of his strongest critics was the Palestinian-born intellectual Edward...

Connecticut’s official balance sheets will be noticeably worse next year due to changes in how the state reports its retiree healthcare liabilities... Truth in Accounting issued Connecticut a failing grade based on its 2017 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report and said the state is “hiding” $10.4 billion in retiree healthcare debt. “Connecticut’s financial condition is not only concerning, but also misleading as government officials failed to disclose significant amounts of retirement debt on the state’s balance sheet,” the report says. “As a result, residents and taxpayers have been presented with an inaccurate and untruthful accounting of the state government’s finances.” According...

Sexual harassment. Homophobic games. Racial slurs. Testicles on a soda can. A chief who points his gun at his officers. A computer riddled with porn viruses. And, to top it all off, a big blue dildo. These are among the many, many antics alleged by Mountainside police officers and borough employees against other officers in a recently filed lawsuit — a 46-page tale that suggests the craziest things happening in the teeny, sleepy, fewer-than-7,000-residents borough of Mountainside have been occurring inside the police department.

Authorities are investigating the possibility that the school bus involved in Thursday's fatal crash was making an illegal U-turn when it was hit a dump truck on I-80. Investigators told NBC 4 that video footage from a Department of Transportation camera shows the bus cutting across lanes of traffic to attempt an illegal through a U-turn area for emergency vehicles. The video reportedly shows the dump truck slamming into the bus as it attempts to get onto I-80 eastbound. Officials have not yet spoken to the driver of the bus, who underwent surgery following the crash, NBC 4 says.

The Supreme Court has struck down a federal law that banned sports betting in almost every state across the country, handing former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) a major win to bolster his legacy. New Jersey has been fighting since 2010 to make sports wagering legal at racetracks and casinos in the state, but had repeatedly been blocked by the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992. The Court ruled 7-2 that PASPA’s provisions prohibiting states from authorizing and licensing a sports gabling scheme violates the anti-commandeering rule. In delivering the opinion of the court, Justice Samuel Alito...

.WASHINGTON -- Longtime Rep. Leonard Lance is in for the fight of his life as New Jersey's most vulnerable Republican lawmaker in a state that clearly doesn't like President Donald Trump. As he runs for re-election this fall in one of only 23 Republican-held House districts whose voters supported Democrat Hillary Clinton for president, Lance has been more willing to vote against Trump and his GOP colleagues. In fact, Lance, R-7th Dist., last year was rated as more liberal and less conservative than his lifetime record in Washington, according to a NJ Advance Media analysis of legislative scorecards from seven...

Gun control advocates are hailing New Jersey's release of near-real-time firearms trafficking data as a trailblazing use of federal information, but Second Amendment advocates and skeptical Republicans question whether the report amounts to a way around a federal limitation on the release of some data. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy unveiled the data Tuesday as part of a campaign promise to strengthen New Jersey's already-tight gun laws. The colorful, four-page report uses what gun control supporters say is a novelty: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives gun-trace data for the first quarter of 2018 to show that 77 percent of...

Dave Perry in a screenshot from the Project Veritas video. HAMILTON >> The Hamilton teachers union boss who got suspended for making inappropriate comments to an undercover Project Veritas newswoman has stepped aside. “I can confirm that David Perry resigned as HTEA president effective Thursday, May 3,” a spokesman for the New Jersey Education Association said Friday via email. ... snip ... Some of Perry’s eyebrow-raising quotes during the encounter on March 27 were: “I’m not here to hurt anybody. I’m here to defend. No matter, the worst teachers in the world, I have defended.” “I got people who are...

The boy’s lacrosse season has been canceled at Haddonfield Memorial High School following an alleged racial slur incident, school officials announced on Friday. The school says an investigation began after a Haddonfield student allegedly used a racial slur directed toward a female athlete visiting the school. --SNIP-- Diversity, sensitivity, and empathy training will be conducted for all students, staff, coaches and sports teams, the school added.